"Water Fountain"

Phoneless phonebooths, two-pound chicken dinners, and cherry pies procured with blood money: Welcome once again to the weird world of Merrill Garbus' tUnE-yArDs. "Water Fountain", the first single from the forthcoming Nikki Nack, finds Garbus and bassist Nate Brenner engaged in a lively round of double-dutch, tossing schoolyard chants against percolating rhythms. Over an ebullient clatter—and a mess of woo-hahs, each more in-check than the last—Garbus waxes unusual: One minute, she's saving her pennies only to give them away, and the next, she's outing her dad as a bear murderer.

Drink deep from "Water Fountain," though, and you're liable to detect a little arsenic. "Nothing feels like dying like the drying of my skin and lawn," Garbus sings early on; soon, she finds herself with a fist around her neck. Is she taking a stand against water shortages, or examining the husks of a dried-up relationship? Through the sun-spangled glare coming off of "Water Fountain", it's not always clear. But there's more than enough ideas bubbling up from under "Water Fountain" to suggest Garbus and Brenner have easily staved off a third-album drought.